Opening SongsOP 1 - Ideal White (Mashiro Ayano)Ending SongsED 1 - Believe (Kalafina)Genre: Action, Drama, SupernaturalEpisodes: 13So here we are again with another extension to the "Fate" series, a franchise that has been doing fairly well in the recent years. After EIGHT years, "Fate" has continued to do well, that was basically the go sign for Ufotable to invest themselves into remaking "Fate/Stay Night", this time doing Rin's route in "Unlimited Blade Works". If you don't know who or what Ufotable is, they are the genius studio behind the awesomeness that is "Fate/Zero", one of my favorite animes of all time. Now its their turn to take a spin on "Fate/Stay Night", which arguably was a lot less interesting than "Fate/Zero" was. Can Ufotable be put up to task for reinvigorating the original and make it intense, interesting and awesome like they did "Fate/Zero"? That may be too much to ask, as the scripts and plots are TOO different, and to me, "Fate/Zero" still remains superior. However, with that being said, "Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works" is a fantastic retelling of an old story with a new spin, which is good enough for most fans, myself included.

Let's get awesome!

The opening theme is "Ideal White" by Mashiro Ayano. Like the previous "Fate" songs many years ago, it mixes a good deal of fantasy and rock into it, making it a song that's worthy of fitting the "Fate" franchise. IMO its not near as good as the opening themes in "Fate Zero", but I guess for "Fate/Stay Night", this'll do. The ending theme is "Believe" by Kalafina, and deep down, I wished that this was the opening theme. Maybe I'm just biased because its Kalafina, I f**king love Kalafina. "Believe" sounds similar to most of Kalafina's other songs, its like a requiem of badassery and awesomeness.Rating: 8.0/10Its honestly the same story that we've had many years ago, only this time it takes a different route and its a lot more "polished". However, for this first half, no matter how polished it is, it STILL tells the SAME story, at least for this first half, it feels mostly similar except for some parts that are exclusive to the "Unlimited Blade Works" route. Its for those parts we watch this anime, and honestly, those new segments are pretty great, at least from the perspective of someone who has never watched the "Unlimited Blade Works" movie. Ufotable's animation is top tier, and they somehow managed to make the fight scenes look EVEN better than the ones in "Fate/Zero". Honestly, that first battle in episode 0 between Archer and Lancer was SO freaking well done, it almost made me shit my pants. For the whole show, the fight scenes are insanely fun to watch, and that is easily "Unlimited Blade Work"'s strongest point. However, the story still doesn't sit too well with me, more particularly though, its the characters that I don't really dig too much. I still love Rin and her tsundere superiority, but I hate Shirou so damn much (he should take a clue from his dad when he was a badass). I hate him less so than in the original, but the hate is still there to some degree. Other than that, the writing isn't the best, but honestly, everything feels like an excuse for us to undergo these breathtaking fight scenes, so it doesn't really matter.

The story revolves around a young man by the name of Emiya Shirou, who is an orphan who was picked up by a man known as Kiritsugu many years ago in a fire that engulfed the city. Before Kiritsugu passed away, he left Shirou with some meager tricks that classified him as a mage, a really pathetic one who could only use fortifying magic, but he's still a mage nonetheless. Anyway, he was just going to school, living a normal life as per usual, but one day, he had to stay behind late to clean his club's dojo. After cleaning, he peered out the dojo to witness a clash of 2 almost inhuman beings. The battle was quick, it was intense, it was overwhelming to the human eye. Feeling that he just witnessed something that he should not have, Shirou booted his way out of there, only to be caught and stabbed by a man with a spear. After being left to die, he is supposedly saved by a girl, whose face he could not make out. He surprisingly survives, and limps his way home, still flustered over what happened. He is attacked by the spear man once again when he reached home, but this time, he accidentally summons a servant, Saber, who repels the man with the spear. Rin barges into his home and explains the holy grail war to him...before he knew it, Shirou was part of the Holy Grail War, a fight between mages to the death using their servants of mass destruction."Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works" is not over yet, there's a second season coming soon, which of course, I'm looking forward to. With excellent fight scenes all about, this is the show for you, especially if you're into the action genre. The weak writing is easily overlooked, because you're going to be captivated by Ufotable's amazing animation quality. I can't wait to see what else Ufotable is capable of in the upcoming second season.Peace.